You're not gonna believe this. He killed 16 Czechoslovakians. Guy was an interior decorator II

[Dexter_Morgan]

Brighton!

Been regulars in the Europa league for the last 5 seasons, finally cracked the top 4 last year Sassuolo and Lancialo are the shock sides in Italy, Bayern haven't made the top 4 for 5 seasons no real shocks in Spain as yet but Real and Barca are nowhere near as dominant

EDIT: Forgot to say Wolves made the top 2 last season as well

[Dexter_Morgan]

Legia Warsaw - September - December - 2024

Managers Thoughts

Well it's been a bit and miss so far, when we get on a run we are superb then out of nowhere we seem to have a run of 3/4 games where we turn absolutely dreadful and I just couldn't work out what to do bar shake up the positions where the worst offenders seem to be, so with that in mind I had a bit of a shake up in midfield and attack and let a few go so I could get some fresh blood in.

Almeida was the biggest culprit I feel, in just over a year at the club he has been sent off 6 times which is of absolutely no use to me when apart from Murphy who is exceptional for his age the other midfielders are either under 22 and nowhere near good enough to be playing week in week out or 34 year old Lukasz Rogalski who is probably just about good enough to play league games but not good enough for Europe so out Almeida went and in came Edvin Erodi and Ludovico Coser

Erodi I see as a stop gap for a season or so or possibly a long term squad player but Coser on the other hand is a player I have been trying to sign since I was at Shaktar let alone Lokomotiv so i'm delighted to have finally got him and if i'm honest this is the club that probably needs him most if he lives up to his potential.

The next 2 signings are ones for the future (along with a Czech kid coming along in the summer)

Frode Jensen will be put in the youth side until the summer then hopefully loaned out to fast track him a little, Martin Hustava went straight out to FK Jagodina and hopefully will get some games there. A year in to the job i've more or less assessed what needs changing at the club but with little money my plan is to spend money on players 18 or under where possible and try and pick up Bosmans for older players to keep the club ticking along.

I'm enjoying my time in Poland (unlike last year ) and that is probably down to the fact that this side isn't just walking away with the league and there is lots of work to be done yet, which is really only starting to take place now with these younger signings. In the 20 seasons i've been managing i've only managed to create 2 world beating sides and my aim now is to make Legia my 3rd or at least have everything in place so they are close once my 5 years are up.

For the 2nd time the Iron Curtain makes up the majority of the CL knock out stages whilst the west seem to do better in the Europa groups. With the Iron Curtain making both the finalists in the last 4 years and Shaktar making it 5 years ago I can only assume that bar Russia and Serbia the level below the top Iron Curtain sides just isn't as good as the west and that explains a lot of why the majority of the East struggle in the Europa, even CS U Craiova who have been tycoon owned for nearly 10 years found the group stages of the CL hard but after 3 Europa Leagues in a row after being knocked out of the CL they are starting to find their feet in the CL now making the last 3 knock out stages so at least their progression is steadily getting there, as a result of that Cluj did well in Europe last year and Steaua Bucharest have rolled back the years a little so far this season which is showing that even though it's taken some time a tycoon takeover can sometimes be good for a whole league and the Senica takeover is another that has been positive, for a Slovakian side to get out of a group containing Shaktar, AC Milan and Monaco is really a fantastic achievement.

[Lenzar]

How are English and Spanish sides doing squad wise with less money going their way? Are average wages dropping?

[Dexter_Morgan]

England, Germany and Italy are the top 3 so their wages and calibre of players is still quite high (Dortmund for example have a side containing 7 players who have played for me in the past ) The highest paid player at Barca is on £47k a week, Real have 7 players paid more than that with the top earner on £83k, so in general the wages do seem to have dropped.

[deltablue]

Excited about Coser!

[AK22]

Very refreshing to see Eastern European sides being so successful in Europe, even without your management. Slightly crazy that Spartak Moscow won the Champions League, but finished in the bottom half of their domestic league, though!

Good luck in Poland. I look forward to their coefficient rising shortly

[Dexter_Morgan]

Excited about Coser!

I have mostly stuck with Lopes until before European games so far but he'll be getting a lot more games next season as he looks like he could be a real player.

Very refreshing to see Eastern European sides being so successful in Europe, even without your management. Slightly crazy that Spartak Moscow won the Champions League, but finished in the bottom half of their domestic league, though!

Good luck in Poland. I look forward to their coefficient rising shortly

I am really surprised myself how well they are doing even without my management, possibly the biggest shock in the save so far has happened though but MTK of Hungary beating AC Milan, Man City, Porto and Everton before losing to Rad in the Europa final would have been even bigger if they managed that final step

with Spartak a bit of research shown bar younger players they were low on Russians of any quality that year which reflected in their league position, they have been stronger domestically since though.

[Dexter_Morgan]

Legia Warsaw - February - June 2035

Managers Thoughts

You are seeing that right, Legia Warsaw are the champions of Europe. Are we really the best side in Europe? No. Did we deserve to win it? Probably not. Am I happy about it? I'm delighted Our home form was the catalyst for it in all honesty and having a front 4 as consistent as ours always gave us a chance.

Some of the results in the league may even suggest we are far from being the dominating side domestically let alone abroad at the moment and in honesty i'll go along with that at the moment, we have 6 first team players 23 or under with another 7 or 8 reserves under 21 and that isn't including players out on loan or the 3 signed up for this season so i'm under no illusion we have a long way to go yet to be anywhere near the best side in Europe in terms of squad, but there is a togetherness and enough promise to manage that feat at some time in the next few years.

[Rikulec]

Luckily there's no chance of that happening in real life in the next century.

[Dexter_Morgan]

Luckily there's no chance of that happening in real life in the next century.

There should have been no chance of it happening for a year or 2 in FM either Bit of luck and good home seen us through. The squad i've assembled for this season though should have more of a right though, i've brought in some really good players, if I could just get a center half now i'd be happy.

[deltablue]

The Russians must hate you

[rodesire]

wow, laying waste to everyone in your wake. Polish sides must be gutted to come so close in the championship group and yet leave with nothing..

[Dexter_Morgan]

The Russians must hate you

If Spartak had have beaten me I think Russia would have ended up topping the co-effiecient As it was they didn't too badly as the next post will show.

wow, laying waste to everyone in your wake. Polish sides must be gutted to come so close in the championship group and yet leave with nothing..

Part of it was a few fringe players being put in before Europe, Lech should have beaten us though which would have put them within a point and we was lucky to get a 93rd minute penalty against Wisla so you're right it could have been either tighter I am going to try and be a bit more attacking this season and i've made a few alterations to the Shaktar tactic

If all goes well between now and September then i'm hoping to try it in Europe too just as I did with Shaktar, the main thing for the moment is to beat my 108 league goal record so far though

[Dexter_Morgan]

Co-efficients

Fantastic year for the iron curtain, the only nation to drop was Croatia but even then it was the second tier in Serbia that overtook it. Rises everywhere including a second nation (Serbia) in to the top 5, this already beats last years thread where there was only ever 1 nation in the top 5 at any point. The reality at the moment is Italian and German teams haven't done well at all in the past 2 seasons bar Juve, Milan and Dortmund so there is an opportunity to get a few more nations in that top 5.

Tycoon Watch

Bohemians 1905 - Spent £2M and finished 4th again

CS U Craiova - Won the title and runners up in the cup after spending £30.4M

FK Ibar Rozaje - Champions

WIT - Georgia - Finished 4th

Lokomotiv 1926 (Plovdiv) - Spent £3.5M and topped the league

Rubin Kazan - Finished 2nd £25M spent

Petrzalka - £2.9M spent and finished 6th

Senica - £9.6M won the double and made the CL knockout

Jekabpils - 3rd, spent £177k

Istra 1961 - Spent £19.65M and finished 7th (though it was a tight table and 3 more points would have seen them in the top 4) managed to win the cup though.

Former Club Watch

KS Elbasani - 6th again but won the cup.

FBK Kaunas - Champions, 3rd this year so far

Haladas - 3rd

Red Star Belgrade - Double winners again

Granit - 8th, 5th so far this season

Siroki Brijeg - Double winners

Shaktar Donetsk - Champions

Lokomotiv Moscow - 5th and cup winners

[DavidBeckham]

Champions league winner, what an achievement

[Dexter_Morgan]

Cheers mate. It was all about the tactic with this one rather than the quality of players as such, in my previous wins I had sides who had a chance straight away or were close but this side only really had 3 or 4 CL winning standard players when I took over, with the signings of Murphy in my first transfer window and then Tomasz Stachowiak it gave us a really strong front 4 and a good midfield. Pina got a fair amount of goals but this new tactic is really getting the best out him, so far he has scored nearly half the amount of last seasons tally in 4 starts and 1 sub appearance so hoping to get him to touch somewhere near the 35+ mark this year.

With the lack of money in Poland it is making things a bit hard especially as I am trying to build my 3rd "super club" so apart from snatching the already decent 17/18 year olds for compensation i've had to take a different approach and sign youngsters 18 and under who aren't really ready for the first team yet and develop them which means i'm probably looking at another year or 2 before the work really pays off. Apart from a young keeper i've pretty much covered every position with kids for the future now, but obviously if more come along then i'll still be investing as once I do eventually leave I can see a situation where teams bid for the best ones, especially with Poland's relatively low ranking at the moment.

[Dexter_Morgan]

I thought i'd post this now as I probably won't get enough playing time to get to a report for a few days and would probably forget knowing me

This is the 3rd tycoon in Slovakia now with the dominant Senica (8 titles in a row, 4 of which before the takeover) and Petrzalka being the other 2. With Senica being half decent in Europe for the last 2 seasons but seemingly struggle both at home and abroad this year the Slovan takeover could signal a shift in power in Slovakia, they are the richest club in the country now and obviously with them being a strong domestic side anyway there is some real potential for them to dominate. It's a shame bar Red Star i've already committed to not taking over sides I did last year or this one could be really tempting if the job came up in the future

[AK22]

That's a ridiculously offensive tactic; with your full-backs bombing on too, it's just down to your solitary centre-back to hold the fort.

Risky business

[Dexter_Morgan]

I've missed doing this and i'm actually getting tempted to buy FM18 just to do an all new version but in reality it's not going to happen unless they knock it down to about £15 as i'm not paying full price  

For those that need a reminder of the idea to this here's the first post 

History

2013/14 Elbasani Albanian 1st Cat. 1st  (Promotion)

2014/15 Elbasani Albanian Superleague Resigned to bug with file regarding counting Albanians as non EU but needing a squad of EU players (explained better in this post)

2015 FBK Kaunas Lithuania 1. League 1st

2016 FBK Kaunas Lithuania 1. League 6th - Cup Winners

2017/18 Szombathelyi Haladás Hungarian Division I 4th - Cup, League Cup & Supercup winners

2018/19 Szombathelyi Haladás Hungarian Division I 1st - League Cup & Supercup winners

2019/20 Szombathelyi Haladás Hungarian Division I 1st - Cup & Supercup winners

2020/21 Szombathelyi Haladás Hungarian Division I 1st - Cup, League Cup & Supercup winners

2021/22 Red Star Belgrade Serbian Superleague  1st - Europa League Runners Up

2022/23 Red Star Belgrade Serbian Superleague  1st - Champions League Runners Up

2023/24 Red Star Belgrade Serbian Superleague  1st - Cup Winners, Champions League Winners

2024/25 Red Star Belgrade Serbian Superleague  1st - Cup Winners, Champions League Winners, European Super Cup Winners, Club World Cup Winners

2025 Granit Mikashevich Belarusian Highest League 1st

2026 Granit Mikashevich Belarusian Highest League 5th - Cup Wiiners

2026/27  NK Siroki Brijeg Bosnian Premier League 1st - Cup Winners

2027/28 NK Siroki Brijeg Bosnian Premier League 1st 

2028/2029 NK Siroki Brijeg Bosnian Premier League 1st

2029/30 Shakhtar Donetsk Ukrainian Premier League 1st - Cup Winners

2030/31 Shakhtar Donetsk Ukrainian Premier League 1st - Champions League Winners

2031/32 Shakhtar Donetsk Ukrainian Premier League 1st - Ukrainian Cup Winners, Champions League Winners, Club World Cup Winners

2032/33 Lokomotiv Moscow Russian Premier League 3rd

2033/34  Lokomotiv Moscow Russian Premier League resigned mid season 1st

2033/34 Legia Warsaw Polish Ekstraklasa 8th - 2nd in Championship Group

2034/35 Legia Warsaw Polish Ekstraklasa 1st - 1st in Championship Group, Champions League Winners

2035/2036 Legia Warsaw Polish Ekstraklasa Resigned in September - European Super Cup Winners

I'm surprised I had this save still, especially as files like the league expansion pack (thankfully the link on first post still worked as i'm not sure if I could have carried on without it)  logos and tactics weren't there and I had to reinstall the game completely too  As it's almost 4 years since I've played the save( )i've decided just trying to get back in to Legia with no idea (bar reading this thread) what I was doing with the club in terms of tactics, players ect; probably isn't the best idea for what I want to do especially as I had just won the CL with them anyway so there isn't really a lot I can do with them and tbh i'm just fresh off the back of a save where i've cleared up so a change of expectations will be a good change for me, especially if I can get a club at one of the expansion leagues.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[deltablue]

I don't know if I ever mentioned this but I've always imagined the title being read in an old-fashioned 'Noo Yawk' accent.

[Dexter_Morgan]

4 minutes ago, deltablue said:

I don't know if I ever mentioned this but I've always imagined the title being read in an old-fashioned 'Noo Yawk' accent.

I've been re watching the sopranos the past few weeks while i've been off work  think that's what got this thread back in my head tbh  

FK Mladost Podgorica

I've taken a job pretty quickly just to get in to it, the setup seems good enough for a club this size though the squad seems a bit unbalanced particularly with only 3 in the first team that can play CM and no natural LW even in reserve or youth sides so that's something I need to address quickly. 

[john1]

Bloody hell  

[Dexter_Morgan]

I was wondering what i'd let myself in for on the 60th minute 

[Dexter_Morgan]

FK Mladost Podgorica - November - May 2035/36

It took a while for me to finally work out how to get the team playing as I wasn't happy with it going in to the winter break partly because I hadn't worked out a tactic properly because partly I hadn't played this game for 4 years so it was a case of starting from scratch and my insistence at the beginning to play with wingers even though in truth they weren't good enough, especially for the left so using the break to play quite a few friendlies and watch them (something I never do usually) and working on a 4-3-1-2 meant we had a better balance and the results and performances improved. Celik were by far and away the best side in the division and we did reasonably well to cut the gap to as low as it ended up in all honesty as they were miles in front when I took over. 

I'm in the deep end as far this country is concerned as I don't have a clue about the standard of the top flight compared to the 2nd but the league is currently 85th (ish) in the rankings so obviously not of a high quality.  What I do think we need is a striker as a priority as i'm not overly impressed with any of them and i'll look to add in midfield even if only to add to the numbers for now.